my wife knocked up some of the riverside cottage blackberry whisky earlier to put away for xmas, and even without maturing it tasted great.

so just thought i’d share this seeing as blackberrys are ripe n’ ready in the hedgerows just now and morrisons are doing a 1L of grouse for just 13quid..

Blackberry whiskey

2kg / 4lbs blackberries
225g / 8oz sugar (or less according to taste)
1 bottle whisky

Place the fruit, sugar and whisky in a large screw top or kilner style jar. Shake every few days until the sugar has dissolved.

Place in a dark cupboards for three months, turning slowly to mix once every two weeks or so.

Strain and bottle. The whisky will have turned a deep, dark purple. It can be drunk straight away, but the flavour will continue to improve for up to 2 years

I did this with Vodka a couple of years ago, was fantastic 😀

mmm. I made bramble vodka last year to go with the annual sloe gin.

lovely stuff.

i made bramble cranachan not so very long ago, and it was de-lishus.

whipped some cream with spash of whisky and some honey. mixed in some toasted pinhead oatmeal
blitzed some brambles with some whisky and maybe some honey (can’t remember)
cream mix in a nice dessert glass, fold in the bramble mix
more oatmeal and some brambles on top

I have a punnet of blackberies at home. I suspect they won’t survive for long enough to go into whisky making, but I like the idea.

Yum..!

Slight hijack.

I am away for two weeks, can I pick some sloes now and freeze them for the making if Sloe Gin when I get back?

Thanks
Matt

Yes and sloes are normally better if they get a bit of frost on them anyway according to a bloke at work who’s into this sort of stuff.

sounds good I will be making some bramble whisky this weekend

I’d wait until you get back before picking the sloes, I think the first frost is as much about leaving the fruit to ripen fully. Think it might still be a good idea to freeze them as this means you don’t have to prick the skin which is very time consuming. Interested in the above recipe as the one I got from the BBC website suggests using 600g of brambles and 300g of sugar for 1L of whisky.

Wish i’d seen this a week ago – just put 4 gallon of bramble wine on! Could have spared a couple o kilos for this – sounds grand. Might have to buy some to try it.

my mum makes plum whisky and sloe gin. beautiful, but lethal!

ive just put some sloe gin on to brew up for christmas. i was told to freeze the sloes first to avoid the skin pricking, so i did. but wasnt sure whether you were supposed to thaw them and then stick em in the gin, or chuck em in frozen, and the skins would split once in the spirit. in the end i ended up still pricking them when they were thawing, just to make sure.
whats the best method?

oh, and im turning the bottles upside down every week. do i need to shake them as well, or just turn them?